Behind My Brand Colors
When you confront any business, whether that be Walmart, Mcdonald's, or even a small business online, one of the first things you notice is their brand colors. Walmart’s brand colors are blue and yellow, Mcdonald’s are Red and Yellow, and my brand colors are Purple and Teal.
At its core, brand colors are meant to convey an underlying message to the audience, and the colors a business chooses are important, as each color is often associated with an already existing scene, emotion, memory, ect.
For example, what do you think of when you see blue? What emotions come to mind? Situations? Do existing arts come to mind? For me, blue reminds me of the sky, and I end up thinking about birds. So then, I think about what birds commonly represent: freedom and adventure. Blue also can remind me of the emotion of sadness, especially when it is paired with dark colors like black. The point is colors are a powerful thing that can pull dozen, if not thousands, of meanings, and brands use colors to tell you what they are about.
As I had mentioned, my brand colors are purple and teal, and I chose these colors because I wanted a dreamy vibe to my brand that also has a sense of grounding. I want to give my audience the sense that they can dream and explore the world to their heart's content but also remember to keep their feet on the ground. To have them see that there is a whole mysterious world, both inside ourselves and outside, but also to be aware of their surroundings in reality. I felt that purple and teal would be a great combination to convey this idea.
Purple is often associated with the mind. It is a color that is dark enough to hide the hidden world but not too dark to overshadow it. It is a color that pulls in dreams and magic and signals creativity. Purple is like a dreamer's starting point, as dreamers use their heads to create vast worlds and complex thoughts. So, due to the common associations with purple, I chose it because a lot of my art drives into my own inner mind and pulls inspiration from the hidden world around us.
While on the other hand, teal is more grounding than purple. The teal I chose as my brand color is a mixture of blue and green (though it leans a little more towards green), and I chose this specific shade of teal for a reason. The Green in the teal reminds me of Earth. Earth is the grounding aspect of my brand. It is always with us as we live on it, and Earth, the ground, reminds us to be in the present. Green reminds us of plants and Mother Earth and allows us to remember that we are alive and breathing. If we weren’t in the moment, we wouldn’t notice all the beauty our reality creates. Like when the baby birds chirp in spring. Or the warmth that comes from a strong hug. Green, in a sense, can be associated with the present, and that’s why I chose it because I try to incorporate fleeing moments into my art.
Then finally, the blue aspect of the teal. I chose teal blue because of the water, the sea, and the ocean. Water is very important in many cultures worldwide, and, like many, it is an important symbol in my culture. My tribe calls themselves Akimel O’odham, the River People, because of the Gila River that runs through our land. Water is a powerful force that brings life. The blue in the teal represents the cultural aspects of my art and is meant to show how deep life runs. The Blue is intended to be the meeting point between the mind and earth, kind of like how the sea sits between the beachy sands and the changing skies. A connection point that balances out the dreamer’s mind and reality, allowing them to see both the hidden world and present space.
Overall, my brand colors are purple and teal, which mixes green and blue!
